What a great day!!!! We woke up to a beautiful sunrise on the ocean, had a wonderful breakfast with freshly squeezed grapefruit juice, and waited for the boat to come over to the island. We needed to wait on the Delmas Aeroport rotary club to come and meet us. For those that don't know, when Freddy told them 8:30am Haitians are worse than southerners and that apparently meant 9:30 before they came over. :) The person who I was in communicating with was Dominique and it was nice to finally put a name with a face, we instantly hugged and felt like we were long lost friends. She was a classy lady and came with 6 other Rotarians. As soon as they saw the boat that we were going on, they decided to find another way over to the island. They actually ended up talking to someone they met at the resort who offered to take them over in their speedboat. They blew by us and ended up waiting for us.
Once we were all on the island, we were greeted by Dada and many happy smiling friendly faces. Everyone was so incredibly friendly and happy to see us all. Kelsey could not stop smiling, shaking hands and soaking it all in. We piled in the back of the pick up truck and headed to the Starfysh guest house. Roads were extremely dusty but since the last time coming here, I honestly can see a difference (roads are actually a little better, more life seemed to be all around us).
Once we got back to the guesthouse, we talked with the other rotarians, had lunch (a great lunch - fried chicken, fried plantains, and beans and rice) and started the ceremony of the completion of the grant. For those people that know, I must note that we STILL have not received the $100 from the Aeroport Rotary club. When I asked Dominique about it, she said she just couldn't figure it out, doesn't have her password for the website, and she left her checkbook at home...blah blah blah. It is extremely frustrating that we have done all this work for $83,800 and we are waiting on a measly $100 in order for rotary international to release the funds. I told her that we would connect this week and that I would once again contact RI and get directions on how she needs to do it. At one point, I was going to tell her she couldn't get on the boat until she gave me the $100, but I didn't think that would be very nice.
The ceremony was great - Starfysh has posted some pics from it. Steve spoke of collaboration and making a difference in a small island. He asked me to say a few words representing the Lowell Rotary club and Dominque spoke representing her club. Then the three of us "cut the ribbon" I couldn't be more proud to be here and to hopefully help "one starfysh at a time"
Rest of the day - we installed a filter with their group although I got distracted by a group of girls that were around 8. One of the girls was crying and the others were laughing. I can't stand to see anyone crying so I went over and tried to talk to them. Needless to say, by the end we were all laughing and somehow I got to dancing and being goofy with them and they all knew my name. John Gruizenga was absolutely hilarious by getting them to repeat anything he said "say, YO" they would reply "say YO" Kelsey came out and joined the fun.
they followed us to the guesthouse and were standing outside the gate waiting for us to play again. We taught them hand slapping chicken and we were all laughing once again.
The Haiti Rotary group went back to the mainland and we took a tour of the new hospital. Again, Kelsey and I got sucked into the maternity wing. Three babies had just been born and couldn't be more proud of their new babies. when we peaked in to look, a mom held up her baby like Mufasa held up Simba and wanted us to hold the baby. Absolutely a gorgeous baby that I held in my arms. Amazing in the states, a new mother barely takes their child out for fear of germs, and this mom wanted to share her joy with all of us. Again this is their giving culture.
Overall GREAT DAY!!!! oh and yes Kelsey is having a great time. Mark and Theresa's daughter Sam is 24 and they have already coined themselves as "buddies for the week". We all got plenty of sun today, 84 degrees and simply gorgeous! Tomorrow we travel to Mopou - Pastor Benny told Steve about this village and the need there so they are the chosen ones for this week. Its about an hour away and there are about 400 people in this village. Cant wait to get started.
Love to all and thanks for reading....
No comments:
Post a Comment